Instagram succeeded by making photos mandatory and text optional in social sharing

Evidence

Their new iPhone app did two things. First, it enhanced the device’s camera with a series of attractive filters that could be applied to photos, creating some immediate utility. Its second innovation, ultimately more influential, was to create a photo-centered social network—a sort of Twitter built on images. On Twitter, one shared a message; a photo was optional. Instagram made the photo mandatory and the message optional. — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 1042

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines Instagram’s core innovation by contrast with Twitter’s model.